Page 70 of Her Boss

I couldn’t help the quick burst of jealousy, no matter how irrational it might have been.

You don’t own him, Genie. Don’t be stupid.

His voice lowered half an octave. “Vi is an associate of mine. Trusted.”

“Why doesn’t she look into it then? Wouldn’t she be a better choice to dig into this?”

“She would be—but I’ve got her doing other things right now. So, you’re it. Go through all of it—then go through it again. I want patterns. Ways he’s being lazy. Anything I might be able to exploit.”

I flipped through the file, not really reading it, at arm’s length, scowling. “How the fuck am I supposed to know how to do that?”

He glared at me, stabbing a finger toward me across the desk. “Because aside from being a royal pain in my fucking ass, you listen. You notice things. You have attention to detail.”

“Look, anybody could?—”

“Shut up and listen. Do you want to help or not?” His dark gaze played over me for the briefest of moments. “You don’t understand. Most people wouldn’t know how to listen. They wouldn’t notice things if you paid them to. Ask me how I know.”

“What? I?—”

He waved a hand. “Never mind. The important thing is that I need someone sharp, another brain. Because if I don’t find a weakness, an angle, something I can use… then I’m fucked.” He ran his fingers through his thick hair. “And if that happens, then that means I just go straight after him. The front door, so to speak.”

“What’s wrong with the… front door?” I asked it even as I began to scan the contents of the file.

“The front door gets men killed. My men. Good men.”

That sobered me. I looked up at him. “I… I didn’t realize. Sorry.”

“Just take that and go. I’ll call you later. We can talk more then.”

“Uh, okay.” A hint of heat bloomed on my cheeks, but I wasn’t sure why. “See you soon?”

“Get going,” he muttered, already fishing his cell out of his desk drawer. “I have a car on the way for you.”

I was almost all the way out the door, when he stopped me, phone pressed to his ear. “One last thing. Nobody knows about this. Nobody.”

I nodded, swallowing against a suddenly dry mouth.

Interesting that other parts of you are very far from dry.

Apparently, just being in his presence had begun to have an effect on me. Then I slipped out of the sun-drenched office.

It should have been a happy, exciting moment, being dispatched to help him like that.

But that last look on Rick’s face as he’d dialed that number said something else entirely.

CHAPTER 33

Rick

The springs of my chair squeaked softly as I leaned back, resting an elbow on one of the battered arms. “Look, your uncle just wants a ‘real estate’ deal.” I held up air quotes as I said it. “It’s not going to be so easy though. On the surface, it looks pretty simple—he wants to develop properties in that shithole we call a city. But they’re in a territory controlled by Salazzo. Being right downtown, there are as you might imagine already businesses there—and I’ll give you one guess who those businesses are currently giving payoffs to.”

“Salazzo? Why though? I thought he was just some enforcer asshole. A thug.”

“He’s all of those things and more. But he’s also diversified into other, uh, business ventures. Ergo, protection racket.” I shook my head, my frustration steadily growing. “The development deal your uncle’s so hot and heavy over goes nowhere until Salazzo agrees to let it happen. And how many scumbags do you think are going to just say goodbye to easy money like that?”

Genie raised an eyebrow. “But how though?”

“One way or another.” I frowned, flipping a pen over and over in my palm as I ran the options through in my mind. None of them were particularly good. “It’s not as simple as just making a deal with Salazzo though. Chester has been very busy. Buying off inspectors, surveyors, city planners. You name it, he’s greased the skids already—but that doesn’t matter on the street.

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